Stop Making Excuses for TV and Movies - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

Stop Making Excuses for TV and Movies

Posted on December 9, 2008 at 10:38 AM.

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I�m one of those guys that have a hard time just �accepting� a TV show or movie. It has to be somewhat realistic within the context of the show. That means I have no problem accepting the �force� in Star Wars or the creation of Spiderman who clings to buildings and swings on webs through New York. I enjoy science fiction movies and comic book characters and I can overlook minor flaws here and there. I loved Star Wars (the original trilogy), Transformers, Spiderman (1 and 2 only) as well as Iron Man and the Hulk. However, there are times when certain television shows or movies stretch the bounds of realism to the point where I can no longer enjoy the entertainment.

There have been times over the last few years where watching a favorite TV show has disappointed me. I�ve gone to see the blockbuster movie that everyone loves and been let down almost solely because the bounds of realism were stretched to the point of making me insane. So when that happens and I find myself disappointed and posting about it, don�t preach to me that it�s just a TV show or just a movie. There is no fictional switch to just shut your brain off and accept these things.

I used to love watching 24. It was fun and entertaining. Jack Bauer often did things that were crazy or unrealistic but it hadn�t reached the point where I started to hate the show. But the sixth season of that show finally got to me. So many things from the president handing Jack over to terrorists to be killed to Jack breaking into an embassy (again!) just killed my love for the show and I quit watching. I posted my displeasure (probably a bit too often) over what the show was doing and posters jumped all over me. �It�s a TV show. Just accept it.� Sorry. That�s just an excuse and it isn�t possible for everyone to accept it.

The Dark Knight is the 4th highest grossing movie of all time. And yet the second half of that movie irritated me to the point I don�t want to see it again. The Joker�s in jail? Nope � he detonates a bomb and all of the keystone cops around him fall down and just let him walk out. Try to kill the district attorney and threaten to blow up a hospital? No problem. Just walk into the hospital and talk to the district attorney in his room. Don�t worry about security. Batman likes his gadgets. But did they really expect me to accept a device that could interpret the cell phone signals across an entire city and not only listen in on every conversation but also use it as radar to indicate the position of every wall and human in every building? That�s a huge stretch that millions of people had no problem with but I did. I can let some things go but when they pile up as much as they did in the latest Batman movie I get annoyed. We can agree to disagree about how great or bad The Dark Knight was. But stop making excuses for bad or ludicrous writing. Some people can�t accept that.

In the end everyone has an opinion. The so-called �popcorn� movie can be very enjoyable. But there is a line of realism that everyone has. Some TV shows or movies may cross my line but not yours. In some ways I�m envious of the person who can just accept obvious flaws in every movie. But I�m still entitled to my opinion and please don�t bother telling me to just accept things. It won�t work and I don�t have to.

Comments

# 1 JohnnytheSkin @ Dec 9

Prepare for a resurgence of hate again, Rudy...with TDK out now I'm sure you'll be crucified again.

# 2 jkra0512 @ Dec 9

I can definitely see where you're coming from. I started watching CBS' "Worst Week" and I loved the first 4 or 5 episodes. They were absolutely hilarious, but then the same thing kept happening to where it became predictable. You knew by the main character doing something smart in the first part of the episode would come back to haunt him in the last part. I mean, how many times do you light a candle and it ends up burning a painting of her strict father...really? c'mon. The writing got VERY dull after the first 5 episodes.

# 3 Fresh Tendrils @ Dec 10

I think most movies have some kind of level of "required acceptance" in order for people to like them. Spidey 2 is top 5 superhero film for me, but there's definitely a good bit of "required acceptance" concerning the storyline/circumstances of the film.

# 4 rudyjuly2 @ Dec 17

Heroes crossed the line on the mid season finale for me. I love the show but man was the writing bad on this one plot point. The entire Einstein time travel theory that allowed Daphne to run back in time (and across the ocean to Japan) to get Hiro and then run back to the future with him was absolutely the dumbest thing I have ever seen on Heroes.

I always thought the show had a general map for everything and if I talked to the producers, they could explain everything logically (or close to it). Now I think the writers just pull stuff out of their *** to make things fit. Why the hell did you stick Hiro back in time, since it wasn't really necessary, if you had to make up something as stupid as letting someone run back in time to save him? Einstein's theory was simply that at speeds close to light, time slows down to next to nothing. It never allowed you to travel back in time!! Or run across the Pacific Ocean while doing it! Absolutely assanine and a complete copout in terms of correcting a stupid writing error and poor plot point. I can accept time travel as a comic book like power in the show. But I can't accept something as dumb as a complete misuse of Einstein's theory to achieve it. Rant over.